After reading the Demon Lord’s letter, I just blankly stared at the mausoleum.
Despite being so full of confidence, you lost, didn’t you, Demon Lord? Even though everyone is so depressed, it is not fair for the person dying to be happy, don’t you think? Is it possible that you are reincarnating somewhere right now? Could that be somewhere in this world? If that’s so, we will all go searching for you, you know?
But there was no answer.
Putting away the letter in my pocket, I scrubbed my eyes clean. I took a deep breath and lowered my head to the mausoleum. Just as the Demon Lord was the Demon Lord for an entire life, I shall be the aide for my whole life as well. Looks like I have forever lost the chance to stop being an aide. Demon Lord, leave the rest to us. This aide shall do something about it.After returning inside the castle, I decided to start solving problems one by one.
“Master, hurry up and become the Demon Lord.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
The great sage Gomoviroa was rolling about on her bed like a child.
“I am not worthy of a king’s vessel, you know? I’m just a researcher–and a human at that! Not happening, nope, nope!”
“Please stop acting like a child. Do you want the Demon Lord army to collapse? A lot of humans have also been affected so we can’t go back anymore.”
Master hugged the pillow and pouted.
“If you’re saying that much, why don’t you just become the Demon Lord?”
“Me?!”
“The one who defeated the true hero. You are also the person who brought up the demon city, Ryunheight. Nobody would oppose.”
“If you’re going to bring that up then, master, you are the oldest member — you have been here since the demon army was brought up. You’re also the strongest magic user.”\n
But master was determined to not admit it.
“I was sleeping at the most important moment! This would just look like an usurpation.”
“No one would think that. And I was also sleeping at the important moments.”
Despite all my efforts to convince master, she just kept shaking her head horizontally.
“I-do-not-wannaaaa!”
“Are you a kid?!”
“I am not even good at going out in front of humans. I would have to go in front of them then, right? Demons are still better but I can’t go in front of humans. There is no way I can become the Demon Lord.”
How troubling. Master being this shy.But I have known her for quite a while so I kinda understand.
I think master is probably trying to depend on me.Having lost everything with her sworn friend, everyone is now expecting her to be the next Demon Lord and flourish.Master is the strongest magician, an expert researcher and a very passionate educator but she is neither a politician nor a soldier. If I had to say, I would say she is not suited for it.And so, by talking to me like this, she is probably trying to steel her resolve.I felt like that so I decided to accompany her willfulness to the end.
“If that’s so, there is one good way, master.”
“What is it?”
I took out the magician’s training puppet from master’s closet.\n“Let’s make this dude the Demon Lord.”
“…What?”
After listening to my explanation, master nodded with a ‘hmmm’.
“I see. So you’re telling me to use the doll just when I appear in front of the humans, right?”
“Yes. With this, you could make it as nice as you want and wouldn’t have to worry about assassinations either. You could just hide from the view and give your speech with a script or something.”
It was a pattern I had seen several times in mangas in my previous life.The one sitting on the throne would just be a doll and the real Demon Lord would be its close aide, standing beside it.Yep, this is it.
It looked like master was thinking a bit about it too.
“I see, I see. I am scared of humans but if I can hide from view then it is possible.”
“Right?”
She thought for a while after too but then gave a big nod.Seems like she has steeled herself while we were having this absurd conversation.
“I can’t let the army the Demon Lord spent her life for fall just because of my selfishness. I will do it with my life on the line.”
“Now that’s my honorable master!”
She came close to me and grabbed my hand with her small hands.
“But, I will feel uneasy alone. Starting with you, I would have to rely on my disciples too. Alright?”